We reviewed the premiere issue of Atari User here and, while we found the magazine interesting, there were many design issues which, we felt, could do with improving. Those criticisms still stand and, really, it doesn’t take much effort to get an average looking ezine into a great looking ezine. With issue 2, the Atari User team looks at the Atari Coldfire Project, JAGFEST UK, [... read more ...]

Another official release of Raze magazine at Out-of-Print Archive, fully authorised by Roger Kean, owner and publisher of Newsfield Publications. This issue, number three from January 1991, covered the rapidly emerging videogaming consoles (Mega Drive, PC Engine, NES) and 16-bit computers (Amiga, Atari ST and PC) with reviews, features and more. To accompany this release, there are four online articles taken from the magazine itself: [... read more ...]

The classic Hudson Soft puzzle game Binary Land, which was originally released on a handful of various formats in the mid 1980s (including the Famicom), has been remade for Windows. Developed by Sokurah, with graphics by Lobo and music by Spacefractal, the game tasks the player with reuniting two penguins, Gurin and Malon, at the end of each level. It won’t be that simple, though, [... read more ...]

Teodoro no Sabe Volar, translated as ‘Teodoro can’t fly’, has been released on the ZX Spectrum courtesy of Retroworks. This is a classic action adventure style platform game where the player controls Teodoro in his quest to save Cornejal kingdom from an invading army. The game zip archive, which can be downloaded from the game card at Retroworks’ website, includes the game (.tap Spectrum format) [... read more ...]

The Retro League episode 53, sub-titled ‘Tasty Controllers’, is available to download. The Retro League is a weekly podcast with news, articles, discussion, links and more on all things retrogaming. This week, regular segments ‘Virtually Retro’ discusses Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode 1, and ‘The Price is Wrong’ looks at “The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time Special Edition ! EXTREMELY RARE – VERY LIMITED [... read more ...]

[Duffman was persuaded back to playtest this fine shoot-‘em-up release for the Nintendo Famicom (aka the NES).] Developed by High Level Challenge, Blade Buster is essentially a classic style single player “score attack” shoot-‘em-up. Taking control of a small space ship, the player navigates the vertically scrolling screen, taking out enemy ships, picking up score bonuses, weapon upgrades, while avoiding oncoming laser fire and explosions. [... read more ...]

The Mojon Twins continue their Amstrad CPC conversion marathon with Sir Ababol, originally released on the ZX Spectrum back in July 2010. The player takes control of Sir Ababol, a young crusader from the 11th Century on a mission to track down the mysteries of wild ababol flowers. What are those red flowers, which, coincidentally, share the same name as Ababol? “Did it have to [... read more ...]

‘Back in Time’ is my monthly feature at Out-of-Print Archive where I look back at the classic video gaming magazines twenty years ago this month. This month it’s October 1990 when three brand new magazines were launched (Raze, Mean Machines and Commodore Format), the Commodore C64GS launched, Ivan ‘Iron Man’ Stewart’s Super Off Road raced all over the major gaming formats, Wonderland proved a wonderful [... read more ...]

The Mojon Twins seem to be going through an Amstrad CPC conversion phase, what with the recent Speccy game Cheril of the Bosque being converted, and now CPC gamers have Lala Prologue in Mode 1 colour glory. The game has the player taking control of Lala with the task of retrieving all the Great Witch Academy’s magical filters and chemicals, which have been randomly scattered [... read more ...]

Episode 52 – “Happy 1st Birthday” of The Retro League has been released. The weekly retrogaming podcast is one year old and to celebrate this milestone, the team look back at the very first episode highlights. Elsewhere, ‘Virtually Retro’ looks at X-Men Arcade XBLA, PSN Announcement, Fatal Fury 3 and Comic Jumper: The Adventures of Captain Smiley. In the news is ‘The Castlevania Retrospective’, ‘Iwata [... read more ...]

With the release of issue 7, the complete set of Maximum (issues 1-7) has now been digitised over at Out-of-Print Archive. The underrated (commercially, at least) multi-format magazine was published by EMAP from 1996 to 1997, was edited by Richard Leadbetter and covered the 32-bit era: Saturn, PlayStation, Neo Geo CD, Arcade, PC and 3D0. With superb production values and incredible in-depth coverage of the [... read more ...]

After being released on the ZX Spectrum back in February 2010, The Mojon Twins have now converted this hit game to the Amstrad CPC. The game sees the player take control of Cheril, an everyday common girl, who heads off to London to live in the city. This means platform high jinks and collecting nuts… The game’s full story, screenshots and download link are all available at [... read more ...]